I thought you read all the threads here? :P

I'm sure glitch mining has been discussed several times.
Yes, you can see what's underground, and if you spot diamonds you can attempt to identify the appropriate above ground spot and then dig directly down to them.

But what you'll probably do is think you see diamonds, rush over to the spot as soon as the gap loads, dig a small hole to mark the area, then chop down lots of trees and craft some ladders for getting out with, then start digging a 2x1 hole all the way down, somehow get killed by the buggy bloody server software, return to the spot and find all your equipment gone, go spend ages working to get at least a set of iron tools, carefully making your way down and laying ladders as you go, before reaching the bottom, digging around a bit because you missed the precise spot, before eventually finding out it was bloody lapis lazuli you saw, not diamonds.

:'(

I said that I read them, not that I memorised them. :<

 

And yeah, I was thinking that would be more or less the case. I've never used a 1x1 or 1x2 shaft for mining though, seems like it would be a bit fiddly.

Nah, not fiddly, and a faster descent than any other method (other than using existing caverns/shafts/etc), aside from a single column 1x1 hole which is risky.

Stand in the middle of the two blocks and dig down on alternating sides - means there's no risk of falling into deep caverns or lava, because you'll always be standing on the highest block.

Avoid doing it when the server is lagging or you might get raised back up and then dropped to fall into a crumpled heap of bones.
(Of course, now we have /back so you don't need to worry about rushing to get your stuff back and descending the hole if that does happen.)

As PB said, vertical mining is a bit risky but it's my preferred mining method.

glitch mining is great, it's how I got nearly all my diamonds, don't get as many glitches as I used to now though

dunno about PB making all those ladders though, I usually just replace all the stuff I dug out, jumping up and laying blocks at the same time

I tend to make the shaft then dig long tunnels low down from there to search for diamonds, then diagonally dig my way out.

Too fiddly... I've decided to just strip-mine as much as I can/need between levels 10 - 16, so far it seems to work OK.

there is a lot of that going on too, soon* the whole server map will have no blocks at that level anywhere

I only do the glitch mining when I can, which is much less often these days




*eventually**
**maybe

I dig a diagonal shaft down to the bedrock, then work in strips every few vertical steps going either side of the shaft, it's worked so far in the two shafts I've dug - I've found gold, diamonds and tons o' coal and iron. I've found a fair few caverns as well.

 

General question - last night I was buggering about in a cavern (YJ) and fell into lava, I used the /back command when I respawned but couldn't find the stuff I was carrying - does that burn up in the lava, or would it exist still, but be bobbing about under the surface?

Fairly sure it burns in lava. Often when you die in lava and you're at the edge of some rock your items will come of out you on death and land around you so some will burn in the lava and some will land on the nearby rock and be saved meaning you can get them back using /back.

That's good, but I need want diamonds, not iron etc... You usually find plenty of iron/gold/coal/lapis lazuli as well anyway. And diamonds are most plentiful in layers 10-16, hence me stripping that. What I hadn't realised is that you can actually leave 3 blocks between the mining galleries not just 2, because mineral/ore veins are at least 2 blocks wide. That meant I was digging inefficiently for f'in ages :(

I think the likelihood of lava also decreases a lot above a height of 10, or at least that's what it looks like to me so far. Fewer lost diamonds, woo hoo!

To answer your question, and dropped blocks/resources/etc will burn when they touch lava :(

:C I was thinking that if they survived within the lava you could maybe douse it with a bucket o' water and collect your stuff back!

How far do you dig out horizontally?

 

To stop me going too far I dig as far as a stone pick takes me.

Space shuttle monstrosity! Big ugly hole! What is it with you people? Just don't shout at me when I've built the whole thing and want it moved somewhere else :p

And I noticed Patch has cleared some stuff away for me last night. Thank you :D Hopefully I'll get a chance later to do some too.

I don't go too far - I try and stick to a system, so I would dig the first gallery with the ceiling as level 16, and go about 25 blocks, then keep adding galleries spaced 3 blocks apart until I have 10 or so in parallel; I'll then go below my starting point and dig a parallel setup in (hopefully) the same xy layout, so that the floor between them is one block high.

 

When I finished that, I'll go back to the level above and expand the first shaft another whatever blocks, rinse and repeat. I think all this ensures I find virtually everything in that space, and it seems to be quite scalable as long as you can find your way back... Putting torches consistently on one side helps with that.

Nice, I'll try that technique out.

 

Providing everything's nice n'tidy navigation shouldn't be too hard - maybe just a torch showing where the main staircase shaft is. I can see what I'm mining even when there's no light source around.

 

Hmm, maybe my brightness is set too high. T_T

Definitely brightness or high gamma which is useful when mining

(bounce) I don't like making torches all the time. It all seems to be such a waste of coal and sticks.

Make charcoal, can use it just the same for torches etc.